Brewery workers reject pay deal

Castlemaine Perkins brewery workers who stopped work yesterday have unanimously rejected a pay scheme offered by management and flagged further industrial action.

Management offered workers at the Brisbane brewery – where XXXX Gold, Australia’s second most popular beer, is brewed – a 3 per cent base pay rise each year for the next three years under an enterprise agreement and it also proposed a 1 per cent performance-based increase next year. This would be followed by higher performance payments in the next two years, based on personal criteria.

United Voice Queensland branch secretary Gary Bullock said there was little clarity over the personal performance criteria and told workers that they should object to the plan. “Management wants to determine whether you should be paid [performance bonuses] depending on whether you are a dickhead or not," he said.

Lion
, which owns the XXXX brand, said it was disappointed. It had put “a very fair offer on the table despite difficult economic circumstances and we hope to continue negotiations in good faith".